The weight of the world

"I’m on three diets. ..Well, you don’t get enough to eat on just one, do you?"   ~ Unknown

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not. ~ Mark Twain.

If you have been one of our Warriors for any length of time you know that we HATE the word DIET.  We dislike the term so much because rather than using the word as it is most commonly defined in dictionaries which is "food and drink regularly provided and consumed", most people use the word to describe a low calorie, food restricted regimen of eating.  Never mind that as an active individual you need to fuel your body for exercise, every person needs adequate fuel just to breathe and think!

When we ask clients what their goals are when they begin an exercise program, the most frequent responses are to lose weight and/or lose the gut.  Exercise definitely plays a role in weight loss but it is not a one-stop shop.  We would rather have someone tell us they want to be able to do a full body push up.  We can get them there!  Or how about bench press their body weight?  We can get them there!  Or maybe run their first 10k race.  Yep!  We can do that too.  But lose 20 pounds or the belly fat?  Ugh!  Why is it that losing weight is so hard?

Years ago my answer to the weight loss puzzle would have been simple.  Eat less and workout more.  It's all about calories in versus calories out.  Years of research and experience have taught me otherwise.  It is one part of the puzzle but we now know that there are many other pieces that need to fall into place to form the whole weight loss picture.  And after all these years the only thing I am absolutely sure of is that each person's key to achieving their ideal weight is as unique as their fingerprint.  We now know that in addition to how much a person exercises and how much they eat, their hormones, sleep patterns, stress levels, the kinds of food they eat, gut bacteria, and possibly even genetics play a large role in their ability to lose weight.

Further reinforcing the fact that everyone is unique, we have seen participants begin metabolic training and the body fat has melted away right before our eyes.  At the opposite end of the spectrum we have seen participants struggle with losing weight after being with the training for a year or more.  So what gives?  All of the above.  In order to lose weight, and maintain that weight loss, each person has to figure out their own unique map to getting there.  And we know that road can be filled with a lot of wrong turns and dead ends that lead to feelings of frustration.  And another frustrating fact, no matter how hard we work we are not all predisposed to being 5' 8" tall and weighing 125 pounds.  Or, for our male Warriors, 5"10" and 170 pounds of solid muscle.  Many times those ideals or goals that we strive for simply are not attainable for us.

So what is the point of this posting?  If your primary goal with exercise has been weight loss, we want you to look beyond that goal and see all the positive things you are doing for your health that carry much more weight, ahem, than weight loss.

By participating in a program that includes resistance training you have changed your body composition.  So perhaps you have not seen the weight loss you were hoping for, but we guarantee you that you have changed your body composition, trading many pounds of body fat for muscle.  That is why those shorts that fit you fine when you started training are now falling down.  And that extra lean tissue, or muscle, will serve you well.  You are at less risk for osteoporosis, and you have a stronger body that is more resistant to injury.  Strength training has also been shown to help normalize blood sugar levels.  Your cardiovascular system is stronger and you have reduced your risk of heart disease and stroke.  Many doctors and fitness specialists now recognize that declines that were once attributed to aging are actually the result of inactivity.  If you keep up your fitness program, the declines you see will be slow and gradual.  If you stop, the declines are rapid and lead to escalating health problems.

So if one of your goals is to lose some weight, we are not telling you to give up on it.  Just know that it comes down to more than calories in versus calories out and that you are an experiment of one.  You will need to look at factors beyond food and exercise.  And if you have the dirty diet word floating around in your head, replace it with the idea of making healthy food choices that fuel your activity. Also know that what has worked for your friend may not work for you, and a low calorie or fad diet is nothing more than a short term solution because as soon as you stop it the weight will come back on.  Long term success with weight loss or any other change requires permanent change that can be maintained for a lifetime.

So although sometimes it seems that we have the weight of the world on our shoulders, and our butts, or thighs, or guts, step back and look at how far you have come instead of comparing yourself to that unrealistic ideal.  One of our Warriors (name to be withheld) has had weight loss as one of their goals.  And this Warrior has lost weight, but has realized greater results in other areas such as body composition change, and more muscle definition and strength.  On a recent vacation this Warrior left this little bubble that we exist in here in Sedona and ventured out into the real world.  This Warrior's reality check was something like, "WOW!  I feel pretty awesome when I see how I actually compare to my peers!".  Use the progress you have made as motivation to maintain a healthy lifestyle and keep chipping away at those other goals, be it weight loss or something else.

“If diets actually worked, we wouldn’t have to go on so many of them.”   ~ Alexis Conason

A solution that works in the short term, but not in the long term, is not a solution at all.  ~  Dr. Jade Teta